The Brown Thrasher 267 



and child of the entire country should use his utmost influence to see that 

 these birds are not killed by human enemies, and that, so far as possible, they 

 receive strict protection from cats and other domestic animals. There are few- 

 birds which are of more service to us than is the Brown Thrasher. Desj)ite 

 this fact, these birds are not infrequently shot through ignorance. 



Such an instance arose in connection with the pair of Brown Thrashers 

 mentioned al)ove. One day I heard the report of a little rifle and, looking 



out oi the window, saw that a boy had just fired at one of the 

 The Little ^^.^^^^ j^^^ ^-^^^ ^.^^^^ j ^^,^^^ .^^^j^^ ^^ ^^_^^^ ^-^^ j.^^^.^^ ^^ ^^.,^^ taking 



Sportsman . . • , . x i i i • i 



aim lor a second time. 1 shouted to him to stop, and, running 

 out to the road, told him he must not kill those birds — that we not only wanted 

 them to live, but that it was against the law to shoot them. His father, who 

 had accompanied this twelve-year-old boy on his walk, came uj) and asked 

 for an explanation of my conduct in interfering with his son. In defense of 

 the young hunter, the father stated: "I have bought my boy a rifle and am 

 teaching him to shoot. I want him to grow up and be a sportsman. Why do 

 you seek to interfere with him in his innocent sport?" 



In the days when the father was a boy there were, unfortunately, no Audu- 

 bon Societies in the country, and there was comparatively little instruction 

 in the schools dealing with the economic value of wild birds and the desira- 

 bility of preserving them. Still, it seemed incredible that this man who, from 

 his appearance, had evidently prospered in business or by inheritance, should 

 have lived to the age of fifty and never learned better than to think that the 

 greatest service which a Brown Thrasher can render is to serve as a target 

 for a boy who is ambitious to learn the art of skilfully pursuing and destroy- 

 ing the wild life which inhabits the woods and fields. 



Occasionally we hear complaints that Brown Thrashers destroy grain and 

 fruit. However, after careful and extended observations, bird experts of the 

 United States Department of Agriculture have reported that 65 per cent of 

 the bird's food consists of insects, mainly beetles. The fruit which they eat 

 is mostly wild varieties, and the damage done to cultivated fruit is exceed- 

 ingly small. The grain taken appears to be entirely waste kernels scattered 

 in harvesting or hauling it along the roads. 



The Brown Thrasher belongs to the Order Passeres and the Family Mimidm. 

 Its scientific name is Toxostoma rufum. It breeds from southern Alberta, 

 Classification southern Manitoba, northern Michigan, southern Ontario, 



and southern Quebec, and northern Maine, south to Louisiana, 



Distribution Mississippi, Alabama, and northern Florida, and from the base 

 of the Rocky Mountains in Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado eastward; 

 and winters from southeastern Missouri and North Carolina to south-central 

 Texas, southern Florida, and casually farther north. In the western states 

 it is replaced by se\eral other species of the same genus. 



